Before a ‘clue’ became a thing that excited a detective, the word referred to a ball of yarn. So how did this shift in meaning occur? Because in Greek mythology, Ariadne threw a ball of yarn to Theseus before he entered the minotaur’s labyrinth. Theseus unrolled the yarn behind him as he traveled into the deadly maze — then used it to find his way out.

Word derivation trivia is always fun to unleash at a party. And you’ll find lots more of it in the TED-Ed series Mysteries of the Vernacular, from Jessica Oreck and Rachael Teel. Each lesson in this dictionary-thumping series tells the unusual origin story of a common word. In the end, there will be 26 lessons total– one representing each letter of the alphabet.

Because the series has reached its halfway point, with 13 lessons out so far, we thought it was high time to share them with you. Below, find the words explored up to now. And keep your eyes peeled (hmmm, I wonder what that expression is all about?) to TED-Ed for more enlightening entries.

Particle physics. To some, the words may produce anxiety. And while, yes, it is complicated — it is far from incomprehensible. On May 3, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, better known as CERN, held its first TEDx event, an illuminating look at how particle physics intersects with other disciplines. As part of TEDxCERN, physicists […]

A year ago today, the TED-Ed website launched. Since then, the site has published 175 original animated lessons, ranging from “How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries” to “Insults by Shakespeare,” with visits from more than 2,750,000 people. Teachers have used the site to create roughly 2,000 lessons per month around YouTube videos. (Here’s how.) For […]

Comments (20)

dmbr622commented on Jul 24 2013

Though this was interesting and enjoyable, the music in the video was so loud it was difficult to understand the words. Fortunately, I could guess at them because I had read the summary below the video.